


Bearing Fruit on a Juniper Tree

by Captain of the Seven Skies (Rikkamaru), Rikkamaru



Category: RWBY
Genre: Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 11:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5415803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkamaru/pseuds/Captain%20of%20the%20Seven%20Skies, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikkamaru/pseuds/Rikkamaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But, between the nights in their self-made blanket and pillow forts, and the days where they would study on each other’s stomachs and sit on each other’s shoulders to reach the sweeter apples in the higher branches of the orchards, they found their peace.</p>
<p>And they wouldn’t give it up for anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bearing Fruit on a Juniper Tree

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this for a year now, and only just got around to posting it. I also decided to post it as Captain as I've never written polyamory before, and would love to know how I did portraying it.

Bearing Fruit on a Juniper Tree

Team JNPR always had an odd dynamic, and they knew it. Being basically two groups with high synergy would do that to a group. Whenever people thought of them, they thought of Jaune and Pyrrha, and Nora and Ren. Not Jaune and Nora and Pyrrha and Ren, the way they were set up and meant to be. And they were aware of it, for the first few weeks they couldn’t figure out how to break the wall everyone had set up between them.

But, as things tended to happen in the team, that wall was viciously torn down by the combined efforts of Jaune and Nora, their leader and berserker.

It was an unusually cold Saturday, and Pyrrha had already gotten up to do her morning routine that she seemed to do every day, regardless of the weather so long as it was bearable. Nora blinked awake and tried to dredge up her usual enthusiasm, only to come up empty-handed for the first time in a while.

The girl yawned widely, looking at the boys in their beds on the other side of the room. Jaune’s was closest, being the first male up what with Ren’s inherent laziness and overhanging fatigue. She briefly contemplated crawling over him to get to Ren, but dismissed it. ‘Nah, too tired,’ she decided, but still she longed for more warmth on the cold day. With a mental shrug, she got up, squeaked in distress when her feet met the cold wood, and bolted to Jaune’s bed. She slipped under the covers without a second thought and cuddled into Jaune’s onesie.

Her shivering seemed to wake him up a little, enough for him to know that someone was in the bed with him and cold. So, without any hesitation, he scooted back a little for the person to move into his warm spot, which they hurriedly did, and put his free arm about them. The shivering slowly ceased, and Jaune went back to sleep, Nora now curled up against his chest.

Pyrrha returned an hour later, and stared at the sight of Nora and Jaune curled up in Jaune’s bed, looking as if they’d been doing that as long as they’d known with how comfortable they appeared. With a sigh, she checked the clock and smiled. It was still early – indeed Pyrrha had seen the sun rise as she went through her cool down exercises – and so the huntress in training went and took a shower, using that chance to try and warm up from the frigid weather.

As she stepped out of the shower, she contemplated the day. It was Saturday, and that typically meant that Ren and Jaune would be near impossible to wake up before noon, Ren more so than Jaune. And it looked as if Nora may be joining their ranks as well. With a helpless shrug to herself, the huntress donned her night clothes once more, and went back into the room. With a yawn, she returned to her own bed for a quick nap, but couldn’t but give the bed with two of their sleeping members in it a longing glance. Then she too dozed off once more.

When they all got up around 11, barring Ren who adamantly refused to move, Jaune blushed a little but didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that Nora was cuddling with him. He just got up and began getting ready for the afternoon, leaving Nora to bounce around and try and wake Ren as Pyrrha sat up and stretched lazily in her bed.

They went to lunch after that, and to an outsider of their group nothing would look any different, but Team JNPR could feel it. Something was changing in their group, some unnamed dynamic that they hadn’t been aware was even there. They could feel it in the way Nora perched on Jaune and Pyrrha’s backs more, in the way Pyrrha and Ren began discussing books they were reading as the hyperactive members of their group went to war with a Remnant: The Game board between them, which eventually devolved to a pillow fight when Jaune won.

One night, Nora decided that Jaune’s onesie was now hers, and refused to give it back. The blond simply changed into a shirt and sweat pants at night as his pajamas after that, and cuddled with Ren if he ever got too cold. Ren, heavy sleeper that he was, didn’t stir whenever his leader did so. Nora would join them if she ever woke too early, and only Pyrrha seemed to hesitate on this barrier that was crumbling between their team.

This too changed one day as Pyrrha moved to get up and do her usual routine, only to be stopped by a hand latching onto her wrist. She spun around, gaping at the pouting orange-haired girl that had apparently crept into her bed in the night. “N-Nora!” she hiss-yelped, struggling to keep her voice down. “What are you doing in my bed?”

Nora blinked. “It was cold, and I didn’t wanna climb over you.” Pyrrha sighed and moved to get up again, but Nora’s gripped tightened again. “Don’t leave.”

“I need to train, Nora,” she explained patiently, but Nora shook her head.

“Nuh-uh, too cold today. You’ll get sick.”

Pyrrha looked outside to refute her statement, but stopped with a grimace. It was raining, and clearly miserable weather, and to top it off the window was fogging in a clear sign that it was warmer in the room than it was outside. “…Okay,” the Amazon finally conceded with some hesitation, getting ready to slip back into the bed. “I’ll stay.”

“Good,” a voice behind her approved, and Pyrrha knew she was tired as she jumped in surprise and spun around. Jaune was sitting up in his bed, eyes half-lidded but alert enough as he gazed at them. “Then you guys can join us.”

“Us” was the blond and Ren, who was still asleep in the bed that he, Nora and Jaune had pushed together with Jaune’s days ago. When Pyrrha blushed and tried to reject the offer Jaune simply watched her before lifting the blanket up in clear request. Pyrrha could barely look at him as Nora got up and dragged her to the bed, herding the redhead to Jaune’s side before taking Pyrrha’s other side. Embarrassment swiftly fled Pyrrha after that as the warmth from two other bodies began to wash over her, returning her to sleep’s embrace quickly.

The next day, all four beds were pushed together (even though only three at the most were needed these days) and the room was redecorated with the beds in one corner and the various amenities were pushed to the other side, with the exception of a bedside table on either side of the bed for their scrolls.

With that one action, the wall between the two groups of partners, and even any within the partner groups, came crashing down.

* * *

Ruby wasn’t really sure how to describe what she was about to ask her team. “Um…have you guys noticed anything…different…about Team JNPR?” As one, the members of RWBY looked up at their leader in mild confusion.

Weiss was the first to answer. “Not really. Now that that idiot isn’t flirting with me all the time I get to talk to Pyrrha more without having to run to get away from him as much, but that’s it.”

Yang shrugged. “I haven’t seen anything different either. I guess they hang out more as a group than they used to.” She tried to remember the last time she saw the Lady Killer without any of his team in the vicinity, and was mildly surprised to come up with a blank.

Blake seemed to mull over something in her head before nodded shortly. “Their scents have been mingling more together than they had near the beginning of the year.”

Weiss tried to wave that off. “Well, they’re teammates now, of course their scents would mix.”

Blake scowled at her a little and shook her head. “No, they are _too_ mixed, as in they have been experiencing more _skin-on-skin_ contact with one another.”

And awkward silence followed that before Ruby tried to break it with a suggestion. “Well it’s lunch right now; we can go to the kitchen and ask them.” The others on Team RWBY mumbled their agreement and got up to follow their leader, unusually quiet. After having it said, they did realize that JNPR had been acting more…intimately these days. When they got into the kitchen, they froze at the scene that greeted them.

Pyrrha was sitting in her chair casually sipping from a mug of tea that was put down only to be picked back up by Ren. The redhead was reading from a book with a soft smile on her face, the hand that was originally holding the mug now entwined with Jaune’s free hand as he and Nora, who was draped over Ren, took turns throwing food into each other’s mouths. Ren looked equally unbothered, drinking from the mug of tea and occasionally intercepting and eating some of the fruit that Jaune was throwing to Nora.

Yang was the first to react. “Holy Dust! Jaune and Pyrrha are dating? Took you guys long enough!”

The two in question froze and swung their heads to look at the blonde, a blueberry smacking Jaune on the cheek with his lapse in concentration. Both began to blush horribly, but a shared confused look was also there. Nora corrected the accusation. “No way, silly! They aren’t _together_ together! If they were, then we all would be!” There was a thoughtful pause. “Are we all _together_ together?” she asked her team curiously, causing Weiss and Ruby to blush instead.

Ren looked curious and lowered his mug, Pyrrha looked embarrassed but equally inquisitive, and Jaune was humming in thought even as his blush slowly abated, tightening his grip on Pyrrha’s hand for a moment. “Well, what’s the difference between being _together_ together and what we’re doing now?” he asked them, popping a slice of kiwi into his mouth and chewing on it as they thought over his question.

“It would have a name,” Pyrrha pointed out, expression darkening. “And it would make people think they have a right to comment on it. There is also,” here her blush deepened and she coughed awkwardly, “the more romantic and, um, _sexual_ aspects of it that we don’t participate in.”

“We could kiss in public!” Nora squealed, but Ren shot that down.

“You were already doing that, Nora.”

“Oh yeah,” she pouted, before dismissing the thoughts as Ren offered her a piece of bacon.

“I see no difference outside of what Pyrrha has already pointed out,” Ren concurred, bowing his head in her direction, which she nodded back to with a soft smile.

Team RWBY watched all of this in disbelief, hardly believing their eyes as Jaune slowly nodded in agreement. “Alright,” he finally said after getting their inputs, “we are not _together_ together.” With that decided, the group returned to their previous actions as Beacon’s first-year A Team stared at them in incomprehension.

Really? That was it? _Really?_

Yang was the first to respond. “Wow you guys are kinky.”

“YANG!” Ruby and Weiss shrieked, their faces aflame as Blake hid her face in her hand before deciding to sit down and enjoy breakfast with the single strangest team among the Beacon first-years.

* * *

As was proven by team RWBY, few could quite understand what the dynamics were in team JNPR anymore. Many people shot them disturbed looks when Jaune carried a sleeping-but-fully-dressed Ren on his back to breakfast, or when Nora sat in Pyrrha’s lap as she babbled excitedly to her about the dream she had that night, or when they fed one another. They were anomalies now, separate from all of the other first-years and a number of second-years in their increased closeness.

The only group that didn’t bat an eye at all to their new relationship was team CFVY, who instead looked almost _proud_ of them whenever they saw JNPR being themselves in public. Coco at one point clapped Jaune hard in the back, nearly sending him to the floor if Ren hadn’t grabbed his arm and steadied him. Nora stilled at the abrupt action and stared at the second-year team leader, who nodded apologetically to the team in general before turning back to Jaune to offer him a thumbs-up. “A bond that tight is just what you need to be a successful hunter group,” she told him and his teammates, and that confirmed their suspicions on why CFVY didn’t seem the least bit bothered by them.

And JNPR knew – vaguely, with the awareness of the fact, but no true understanding as to _why_ – that other teams were discomforted by them, knew that RWBY didn’t quite get it though they were the closest of their year group to them and the next group most likely to figure out the reasoning behind it. They knew that they were just a little bit too off now.

But, between the nights in their self-made blanket and pillow forts, and the days where they would study on each other’s stomachs and sit on each other’s shoulders to reach the sweeter apples in the higher branches of the orchards, and the moments before sunrise and after sunset where everything was calm and they were tangled together on whatever they were calling a bed at the time, indistinguishable to one another in their “puppy pile”, they found their peace.

And they wouldn’t give it up for anything.


End file.
